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Central area, at the Student Association Hall.
By this time, it felt like a day has already passed.
Students with insight skills spent a long time looking outside and had to be replaced several times.
Among the students, the only one who didn’t rest was Do Wonwoo.
Ji Myungsoo urged him to get some rest at least, but Do Wonwoo was stubborn.
He had the physical stamina to endure for days and nights, and Ji Myungsoo knew this so he eventually gave up persuading him.
Ji Myungsoo decided to rest instead in case Do Wonwoo’s physical endurance dropped.
“No newly confirmed enemies in Exit 1.”
“Same for Exit 2.”
“Otherworld in Exit 3 is nearly cleared. There are no new enemies.”
After listening to the students’ reports, Do Wonwoo said in thought.
“There are no new enemies after the black snow fell.”
It was as if the black snow was protecting the school.
According to the Class Zero freshmen, the snow had Jo Euishin’s energy waves.
Perhaps he was really protecting the school.
Do Wonwoo looked out the window and saw the black snow weakening, the snowflakes gradually decreasing.
‘The snow’s about to stop.’
They might face another crisis if the black snow stops.
Fortunately though, good news came as soon as it did.
“The three students sent outside are back.”
A student reported the return of Joo Soohyuk, Maeng Hyodon, and Yoo Sanghoon.
He was told that Yoo Sanghoon’s uniform was torn, but there seemed to be no problem other than that.
Thinking that Yoo Sanghee would be relieved at her brother’s return, Do Wonwoo’s mouth rose faintly.
But after a while, Do Wonwoo was immersed in thought again.
‘Those three were supposed to find Jo Euishin. I’ll have to ask about Jo Euishin’s whereabouts. Now that the black snow has stopped, we need to be ready for the possibility of enemies appearing again. Students who haven’t fought much yet have to step up…’
Kwang!
At that moment, Do Wonwoo’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a chair hitting the floor.
Moon Saeron suddenly got up.
She ran to the window and opened it wide, looking up at the sky.
The students who saw it also had their eyes wide open.
The boundary that turned opaque was now back to its original form.
The students fell silent, unable to respond.
They must be doubting if they’re seeing things in vain, but soon, device notifications broke the silence.
Dingdong, dingdong, beep…!
“…Device messages are coming in!”
“Satelite warnings are coming in too!”
Students fired up their devices and floated holograms big and small.
When communication resumed, the device that measured time in offline mode returned to normal.
The device clock points to three hours after the start of entry to the school.
Do Wonwoo was trying to instruct the student in charge of external contact to send a rescue request, but he ordered something else first.
It was something he could say because he had a strong belief that there would be someone around who wanted to get into Eungwang High.
“Let’s check the recording devices now that the communication signal is back up. Check the entrances. Check who’s there and if they can get out of the boundary.”
Students turned on their devices and checked recording devices at Do Wonwoo’s instruction.
The area around the school gate can easily be checked.
Then, exclamations poured from all over the place.
“A group of Dragon Clan members are approaching from the East Gate.”
“The Lake of Eternity is coming from the West Gate! Professor Kwon Jein is here too!”
“The Red Lion Team is flocking from the South Gate with the Red King!”
“I think there’s a player team coming in from the North Gate as well. The person in front seems like a very famous player but I don’t remember… Oh, there’s Professor Hong Kyungbok and Tak Geosan!”
A normalized boundary.
Restored communication.
Enemies no longer spawning on campus.
Leading players at each gate of the school.
Knowing all these, there was no doubt.
The malice that hit Eungwang HIgh on Christmas Eve could no longer threaten the students.
Ji Myungsoo rushed to the conference room with the broadcast mic for Do Wonwoo.
Do Wonwoo took the microphone, his hand trembling a little as he did.
But unlike his hand, his voice did not shake at all.
“This will be the last broadcast.”
Inside the campus where the black snow just stopped, Do Wonwoo’s voice rang out to announce the end of the crisis.
***
The unprecedented events in Eungwang High quickly spread through the media.
News of otherworlds, enemy alerts, and notifications of otherworlds being cleared were constantly reported.
Anyone could understand that there’s a fierce fight around Eungwang High and in it, even if they’re not familiar with the player world.
A list of the biggest contributors included world-famous players, a dragon, and the greatest heroes of the Dark Ages.
Some media admired their performance and praised them purely, but some did not.
Some outlets tried to obtain a list of casualties to squeeze out negative stories.
If a student died in the incident during this time when a conflict between the government and the Player Association is high, there would be intense repercussions.
Without even checking the data, some media companies published stories that speculated that students died in the incident and stirred up commotion on how the Player’s Association and Eungwang High should be held accountable.
However, no students were seriously injured or killed.
The biggest injuries were suffered by members of professional player teams who were dealing with otherworlds outside the school, a normal occurrence that’s not worthy of being put in the news.
And the plan prepared to wrap up the situation was already moving quietly.
“Can I leave the interview up to you then, Do Wonwoo?”
“Yes, of course.”
“I’ll hand you the materials I made for the interview.”
In the Student Association’s conference room, the PR team of Hwangmyeong Foundation and the intelligence teams of each player team were discussing with Do WOnwoo.
Do Wonwoo was surprised to see that the foundation’s PR team was thoroughly prepared to deal with the media.
It felt as if they prepared in advance.
With things going smoothly, the students prepared to go home.
“Let’s go first, Junyeol-ah!”
“What? Shouldn’t we help though? I also have to give my statement to the association.”
“Chokryong-nim and the Red Lion’s intelligence team will deal with it. You don’t have to worry.”
After reuniting with Yeom Junyeol, the Dragon Clan and the Red Lion team tried to pull him back immediately.
Those who shared a warm hug with Yeom Junyol with tears in their eyes quickly finished preparing to return home despite the busy surroundings.
They were reluctant to leave their home base amid the betrayal of the Dragon King’s shamans’ betrayal, but they couldn’t leave Yeom Junyeol here.
Yeom Junyeol seemed hesitant, but when the blindfolded Yong Jegun persuaded him, he had no choice but to accept it.
“I used a lot of energy today so I want to rest. Let’s go home. I want to hear what you went through, Junyeol-ah. Also, my eyes hurt because my divinity seemed to have increased.”
Yong Jegun, who had just been briskly walking and looking around, brazenly said so.
Yeom Junyeol immediately agreed when he saw the blindfolded Yong Jegun.
“You used your light skill, didn’t you Sanghoon-ah? What did you do? It would’ve hurt so bad if your uniform is this messed up!”
Hit!
“Ah, why are you hitting me!”
“You deserve it!”
Yoo Sanghoon intended to change into gym clothes as soon as he arrived at the hall, but he was caught by Yoo Sanghee before he could.
Eungwang High uniforms are made durable for battle, so seeing Yoo Sanghoon’s uniform so badly messed up made her beat up her brother.
Yoo Sanghee beat him hard and asked.
“Where did you put your shield, Sanghoon-ah?”
“…”
Yoo Sanghoon kept his mouth shut as he recalled the halved dueling shield.
He hid the broken shield in a corner where he was supposed to change his clothes.
It was too broken now that it couldn’t be transformed into a card.
He thought he would be safe since he covered it with his uniform jacket, but Yoo Sanghee found it amazingly and silently slapped Yoo Sanghoon’s back again.
Hit!
Yoo Sanghee said they had to go home right away and that he had to be beaten up by their parents.
Yoo Sanghoon hesitated and tried to hold out, but he couldn’t resist when Yoo Sanghee began to pull him by his ear.
Some students chose to return home on their own, but others didn’t.
“It’s so unfair…”
“That’s right! We worked so hard for the Christmas event!”
“At this rate, we’ll have to spend Christmas at home, right? We won’t get to meet Jegal-ssaem?”
“We couldn’t even hang out that much with Jegal-ssaem!”
“It would be nice to have a collection from a photo book though!”
Class 2-0 were full of complaints.
They monopolized Jegal for a while after arriving at the Student Association Hall, but it was only for a short time.
Jegal had to move to use Spiritual Word on the demon trapped in the warehouse and alternately patrol with Gong Cheonghwon, and he had to reassure other students as well.
What they hated the most though was that Jegal took off his ibis doll costume not long after they arrived.
No matter how much the Class 2-0 students begged, Jegal didn’t give in.
“Hey, if we clean up the school well, won’t we be able to do things as planned tomorrow?”
“I guess? Let’s talk about it first.”
“The new student rep went home, so let’s make a deal with the former rep!”
It was ridiculous to propose to clean up the battlefield-transformed-campus in one day and hold an event the next day.
Class 2-0 began their nonsense again, but the other students secretly cheered for them.
Everyone who went to school today was looking forward to the Christmas Eve event.
“Oh, you guys are here.”
“Professor Ham Geunhyung!”
“Were you at school, professor?”
Ham Geunhyung reunited with Class 1-0 while Class 2-0 struggled to enjoy Christmas.
The freshmen Class Zero students were worried about Maeng Hyodon who seemed to be out of energy.
Ham Geunhyung looked around and asked.
“Let’s check attendance.”
Mok Wooram was handing an energy bar to Maeng Hyodon.
Min Geurin was a few steps back from Song Manseok and Hong Kyungbok with her head down.
Saeum of April and Kwon Lena were the first ones to run to Ham Geunhyung.
But there was one person missing.
“Where’s Jo Euishin?”
“…”
No one answered him.
Maeng Hyodon, who saw the moment when Jo Euishin disappeared, looked further depressed.
Before Ham Geunhyung could ask again, someone ran towards them.
“Guys!”
The children’s faces lit up when they heard the voice.
Kim Yuri was running to them.
After that, there were Hani, Dokgo Miro, the two attention-seekers, and…
An unknown person.
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